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THE SPONSOR This page intentionally left blank THE SPONSOR NOTES ON A MODERN POTENTATE Erik Barnouw OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford New York Toronto Melbourne Oxford University Press Oxford London Glasgow New York Toronto Melbourne Wellington Nairobi Dares Salaam Cape Town Kuala Lumpur Singapore Jakarta Hong Kong Tokyo Delhi Bombay Calcutta Madras Karachi Copyright © 1978 by Erik Barnouw First published by Oxford University Press, New York, 1978 First issued as an Oxford University Press paperback, 1979 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Barnouw, Erik, 1908- The sponsor. Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Television advertising—United States. 2. Tele- vision programs—United States. 3. Television broad- casting—Social aspects—United States. I. Title. HF6146.T42B35 301.16'1 76-51708 ISBN 0-19-502311-0 ISBN 0-19-502614-4 pbk. 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 Printed in the United States of America To D.B. This page intentionally left blank ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author is grateful for the opportunity he had to study, as a 1976 Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., the role and influence of the sponsor in American television. He was free to pursue his inquiry wherever it led him. The resulting docu- ment is his responsibility. He also owes a deep debt of gratitude to the many people in television—and surrounding territory—who helped and encour- aged him in this exploration. October 1911 E. B. New York, N.Y. This page intentionally left blank CONTENTS H PART ONE RISE 7 1 On the Eve of the Sponsor 9 2 The First 400 10 3 New System 14 4 Monopoly Games 20 5 National 21 6 The Dispossessed 27 7 Uprising 28 8 Two Worlds 32 9 Senator Truman 3 7 10 Transition 41 11 Qualms 48 12 Changing the Guard 5 5 13 Going Public 58 14 Demographics 68 15 Do You Agree or Disagree . ? 74 PART TWO DOMAIN 77 1 The Inner Fortress—the "commercial" 79 2 The Outer Defenses--"entertainment" 101 3 The Satrapies—"public service" 123 4 Sphere of Influence—"culture" 149 PART THREE PROSPECT 153 1 Problem: Success 155 2 The Medium and The Biosphere 156 3 The New Liberation 159 4 Genie from the Tube 161 5 Jobs Wanted 169 6 The Circuses 171 7 Empires 174 8 Fringe Medium 179 NOTES 183 INDEX 207 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS TV-equipped tricycle—cartoon No sales message—The Browning King Orchestra Announcement of the formation of NBC Inflating the credit bubble—a spend-now "singing commercial" The Demographic Dial Police car "as seen on TV"—cartoon Exporting the wasteland—cartoon The secret agent "Don't you understand?"—cartoon A Modern TV ad Public service message for Radio Free Europe Mobil underwriting—cartoon "How about changing seats?"—cartoon The Advertising Council claims "sponsorship" of a Yucca Flat atomic test And circuses—the Goodyear blimp with a "public service" message This page intentionally left blank THE SPONSOR This page intentionally left blank "Papa, what is the moon supposed to advertise?" CARL SANDBURG, The People, Yes BUT FIRST, THIS MESSAGE . The television sponsor has become semi-mythical. He is remote and unseen, but omnipresent. Dramas, football games, press con- ferences pause for a "word" from him. He "makes possible" concerts and public affairs broadcasts. His "underwriting grants" bring you folk festivals and classic films. Interviews with visiting statesmen are interrupted for him, to continue "in a moment." His role and image have changed. There was a time when he clearly had human form. Performers saw him sitting in the "sponsor's booth," where he could order script revisions, which were promptly made. He was surrounded by attendant execu- tives; sometimes he was accompanied by a lady. There were rumors that this or that program or star had been canceled—or saved—by the verdict of a sponsor's wife. The folklore of spon- sor meddling fills volumes of radio and early television history. But things have changed. One is not even sure now whether a sponsor is a person or some abstract corporate entity—"they" 3 4 THE SPONSOR rather than "he" ("IBM presents . ."). If there is someone who sits at the corporate summit and makes decisions, he re- mains shadowy. What sorts of decisions does he make? According to some network executives, he no longer makes decisions that deal with programming. Spokesmen for sponsoring organizations tend to- ward similar statements, but with a difference. They say they don't want to control programming, but insist on the right to decide with what programs their names or commercials will be associated. They leave it to broadcasting companies to provide suitable settings for this participation. The broadcasters do so. Perhaps they are all saying that sponsorship has become so essential, so crucial to the whole scheme of things, that inter- ference of the old sort is no longer necessary. A vast industry has grown up around the needs and wishes of sponsors. Its pro- gram formulas, business practices, ratings, demographic surveys have all evolved in ways to satisfy sponsor requirements. He has reached the ultimate status: most decision-making swirls at levels below him, requiring only his occasional benediction at this or that selected point. He is a potentate of our time. Regardless of where decisions are now made, sponsorship is basic to American television. Even noncommercial television looks to it for survival. Yet the subject is seldom discussed. This may be because broadcasters are reluctant—understandably—to emphasize their dependent state. It may also be because a gen- eration of Americans has grown up in a television environment so conditioned by sponsors that it has become difficult to imag- ine any other state of affairs. But considering the place that television has achieved in the life of our day, the subject de- mands analysis and appraisal. The word "sponsor" evokes the business sponsor, but there are of course others, who in our society play a lesser role. They include officials in government and diverse non-profit units—edu- cational, religious, philanthropic, political. All will be consid- ered in this study. Their relative roles, here as elsewhere in the world, seem to reflect their relative power status. And the tube is an arena for their continuing interaction. The first Part of our study will sketch the rise of the sponsor, in BUT FIRST, THIS MESSAGE ... 5 radio and then television, to his present state of eminence; this sec- tion is titled RISE. The second will examine his pervasive impact on television programming, with the emphasis on network pro- gramming, the main arena; this section is titled DOMAIN. The third and final Part: will assess what the dominance has meant for our society, mores, and institutions—and may mean for our future; it is titled PROSPECT. Our study is thus concerned with an instrument of power, exercised in forms seldom associated in the average person's mind with power, and perhaps all the more telling for that rea- son. For it provides delights to which men and women turn for relaxation, reassurance, and understanding of the world they in- habit—via images in color more real than life, defining what is good and great and desirable. This page intentionally left blank ONE RISE © Action for Children's Television, 1916. Reprinted with permission. Do we move ourselves, or are moved by an unseen hand at a game That pushes us off from the board . ? TENNYSON, Maud ON THE EVE OF THE SPONSOR When radio station KDKA, Pittsburgh, went on the air in No- vember 1920 as a venture of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, it set off extraordinary explosions. Overnight the broadcasting age began throughout the United States. Starting in radio, it promised to expand soon into tele- vision; Westinghouse and others were experimenting with it. During the months following the KDKA debut, the new "radio" counters of department stores and electrical shops were mobbed by people clamoring for sets and parts. And hundreds of entrepreneurs rushed to secure broadcasting licenses and build stations, which further stimulated the set-buying boom. By July 1922 some four hundred stations were licensed, and more were on the way. Newspapers were running columns and whole sections on broadcasting, and many were planning sta- tions.1 Although the broadcasting era had been launched, the time- buying "sponsor" was not yet a part of it. None of the first four 9 10 THE SPONSOR hundred stations had sold time—for advertising or any other pur- pose. Most had not even contemplated such an idea. Thus "the American system of broadcasting"—built on the sale of time- was not a part of our first broadcasting boom. But circumstances were setting the stage for the entrance of the sponsor. The circumstances can be understood by focusing briefly on those first four hundred stations. Who launched them? For what purpose? What were they broadcasting? THE FIRST 400 The Westinghouse company, which had sparked the explosion, had been making radio equipment for years, mainly for the army and navy, which had been among the earliest users of wireless and radio. Before World War I they had shared the air with various others: ship-to-shore radio; professional experimenters like Reginald A. Fessenden, Lee de Forest, Edwin H. Arm- strong, and others, some working in corporate laboratories, some on university campuses; and also with countless amateurs or "hams" who filled the air with code and chatter, and often en- raged the military. The "hams" were accused of interfering with naval communication and even of such pranks as sending fake orders to admirals. To control the "hams" a licensing law was passed in 1912.